Agents of SHIELD Season 1 EP 20 Review

After the game changing and action packed filled episodes we've seen recently from Agents of SHIELD, most of this episode seemed to be scaled back on the surprises. There was still good fight scenes, great one-liners, and a compelling story, but it was not up to the same level in terms of jaw dropping moments. Silly for me to think that way as Marvel and writers Maurissa Tancharoen and Jed Whedon were saving the best for last.

***** SPOILERS for "Nothing Personal" to follow*****

After recent revelations about Ward, we knew this episode would dive deeper into his betrayal. The episode started off with May tracking down Maria Hill to try and get some answers to her questions. While May gets her answers, the rest of the team searches for theirs after discovering Ward and Skye have left Providence. The team however, is shocked by the answers they discover. Skye left them a message telling them "Ward is Hydra" and when Simmons discovers Koenig's dead body, they know it to be true. This leads to all kind of emotion and causes the biggest outrage from Fitz none the less. In typical unfortunate timing, right when the team puts a plan in place they get some visitors.

Providence is bombarded by the military, Colonel Glenn Talbot, and Maria Hill. When Talbot asks the team to turn themselves over, Coulson explains what has happened to Hill and her perspective changes. Hill and Coulson team up to take down Talbot and his men in an exciting sequence. With them now on their way to rescue Skye, Skye does whatever she can to keep herself alive. Even if that includes turning herself in to the police. Unfortunately for Skye, Ward fights them off and gets some extra help when Deathlok comes back into the picture to stop Skye from escaping.

Deathlok and Ward need the hard drive to be unlocked and Deathlok goes to extreme means to do so. He shoots Ward with another one of his new toys and stops his heart until Skye gives up the correct way to unlock the hard drive. Skye tries to convince both Deathlok and Ward that they don't need to listen to Garrett but Ward reiterates that he owes Garrett. What exactly Ward owes Garrett is a mystery for now, but should be resolved next week.

When the rest of the team meets up with Deathlok, Ward, and Skye, Hill and Ward get into a verbal fight which seems to end with Ward as the winner. Luckily for us and Skye, Hill was only stalling so Coulson had enough time to climb aboard his stolen plane. Once he rescues Skye, they go to drastic measures to escape the plain. This brings us one of the cooler sequences of the series as Skye, Coulson, and Lola go flying and dropping to the ground.

Now for the jaw dropping ending. May returns in secret to deliver a video she found to Coulson. The video contains information regarding TAHITI. When the video starts up, it gets really weird and confusing very quickly. Coulson appears on screen. He is making a video message for Fury where he states that he is resigning from SHIELD. The reason for this decision is because of his work with Project TAHITI. Apparently Coulson was a leader for the mysterious project and explains that the project seemed to work at first in terms of regenerating tissue but then the patients started to lose their mental ability. This brings Coulson to the conclusion that the best way to save someone from death would be a reprogramming the mind so the patient had no idea what happened to them. Coulson ends his video by saying that Project TAHITI should be stopped and never used.

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Agents of SHIELD Season 1 EP 19 Review

In recent weeks, Agents of SHIELD has really picked up. The story has begun to flow, the stories have been top notch, and have brought in some new faces. This week was more of the same for the series that has found a new life recently with the elements mentioned above and including a stronger emotional connection with the audience. This is a review for episode 19 of season 1 of Agents of SHIELD.

***** SPOILERS below for "The Only Light in the Darkness *****

This week's episode of Agents of SHIELD brought back two characters we met in last week's episode. Right from the start we get reacquainted with Marcus Daniels (aka Blackout). Daniels is terrorizing a town while the team focuses on the outbreak at the Fridge that allowed Daniels to escape. Once Coulson learns Daniels has escaped he insists the team goes after him, but Eric Koenig has an agenda they must complete before that happens. Koenig brings the team to a lie detector to make sure he can trust the team, and he has his doubts. During these tests Skye avoids giving away her previous identity, Triplett reveals to have Howling Commandos ties from his family, and Ward gets held at gun point when Koenig gets suspicious about him being Hydra.

The whole team ends up passing and gets their very own lanyard, which Koenig uses to track them. Coulson selects Triplett, Simmons, and Fitz to go out and rescue someone that has a storied past with Coulson and Marvel's universe. Name-dropped as "The Cellist" in Avengers, Amy Acker takes on the persona of Audrey Nathan. Audrey was Coulson's former love interest before he was killed. As far as Audrey knew and still knows, Coulson is still dead even though she feels as if he is watching over her. 

May decides to leave the team after repairing The Bus because of Coulson's lack of trust towards her. May sets off on her own mission to track down Maria Hill and get answers, with the help of her mother. May's absence leaves Koenig, Ward, and Skye alone at Providence. Ward decides to shrink that number when he kills Koenig, ending Patton Oswalt's time in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Once Skye finds Koenig's dead body, she puts together Ward's stories and concludes that he is Hydra. Unable to get away Skye and Ward fly to go meet the team as Ward says but reveals to Skye that they are in fact going to the location so she can unlock their backup storage device.

With Skye and Ward out on their own, Coulson and the rest of the team devise a plan to stop Blackout once and for all using some devices made by none other than the angry green monster himself Bruce Banner. The devices work and they put an end to Marcus Daniels. When the team returns to Providence and discovers Skye and Ward are gone they begin to worry. This will lead directly into next week's episode featuring Adrian Pasdar returning as Colonel Glenn Talbot and Cobie Smulders making an appearance as Maria Hill

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Agents of SHIELD Season 1 EP 18 Review

Agents of SHIELD once again delivered a strong episode. In an episode that showed the team wavering on who to trust, "Providence" was able to give us some emotion and tug at our hearts. Whether it was Ward showing dislike to Garrett for having Skye shot earlier in the season or Phil Coulson constantly struggling with the realization that everything he has known and fought for was a lie.

 ***** SPOILERS for "Providence" to follow ***** 

At the start of this episode, we see Ward, who is a full-fledged Hydra agent, breaking Raina out of SHIELD's captivity. Garrett, confirmed to be the clairvoyant, sent Ward to get Raina so she can help complete their ultimate goal- Replicate the serum that revived Coulson and Skye. Garrett somehow managed to take the remaining GH serums from the secret base and has been using them on dying people. So far, none of the serums have worked the same way and Garrett is hoping that Raina can figure out how to correct that.

The rest of the team, meanwhile, we find at The Hub repairing The Bus when they get a call from a new frienemy. Colonel Glenn Talbot, played by Adrian Pasdar, calls the team to ask them a few questions. Coulson does not like the feeling Talbot gave off and orders his team to get the Bus up and running so they can leave. Coulson orders Skye to erase everything known about all members of the team so that the rest of the government will have a hard time tracking them down. When Skye is rounding up everyone's badges, Coulson's has coordinates light up on his and the team flies there in hopes of finding Fury. 

While the team is off to a secret base, Ward and Garrett are off to another called The Fridge. When they get there, they infiltrate the base and go to a secret room where SHIELD has housed all of the dangerous items they said they had sent to space to be destroyed. Garrett finds the 0-8-4 the team found in episode 2 and uses it to shoot holes in the walls and breakout all of the prisoners SHIELD has collected over the years. It is here where we see our first look at Marcus Daniels aka Blackout, played by Patrick Brennan, who will be the villain in the next episode going after Coulson's ex-lover known as "The Cellist". Ward also gives Garrett another surprise when he finds the case of Gravitonium.

Luckily for the team, they do not know that Dr. Hall is alive and in that case, yet. Unfortunately for the team, Raina discovered that Skye encrypted the backup so only she could access it. This causes Garrett to order Ward to get Skye to unlock it for them using whatever means necessary. We also see a glimpse at what looks like cybertek in the side of Garrett, which raises questions on just how much cybertek he has inside of him. Ian Quinn also returns as Ward and Garrett must have broken him out of the Fridge.

Ward then flies out to the secret base that the rest of the team arrived at earlier. When the team first got there, we get to meet Agent Eric Koenig (Patton Oswalt). Koenig reveals to Coulson and Coulson alone that Fury is in fact not dead. Oswalt seems to be a great addition to the cast and we will get to see more of him in next week's episode!

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Agents of SHIELD Season 1 EP 17 Review

"Turn, Turn, Turn" lived up to its name. In the 17th episode of the season for Agents of SHIELD, Marvel threw us more turns in this episode than they have in the entire season combined. This article is a review on "Turn, Turn, Turn" so obviously, there will be spoilers. If you have not watched the episode, stop reading immediately and go watch it! This was the best episode of the season so far, so go watch it and come back and read our review after. You have been warned...

***** SPOILERS for "Turn, Turn, Turn" to follow *****

Well now that you are still with us, "Turn, Turn, Turn" was depicted as the tie in episode to Marvel's blockbuster Captain America: The Winter Soldier that opened this weekend. We rejoin the team while they are confronting Agent May about her secret phone line that she reveals to be a direct line to none other than Nick Fury. Coulson is not sure if he can trust her so he locks her up for a while.

Meanwhile, Agent John Garrett was being shot at by SHIELD drones and joined the team on The Bus after they helped save him. The Bus has had its initial destination changed to go to The Hub after orders from Victoria Hand. When the team arrives at The Hub, they believe that Victoria Hand is in fact the clairvoyant and want to wipe all of the info they have gathered so she and Hydra cannot get their hands on it. Skye backs up all the info and gives it to Ward, which will prove to be crucial later on. 

The team escapes The Bus and goes on a mission to rescue Simmons and Triplett, who went to The Hub for research purposes. With Skye and Ward off on their own, Garrett, Coulson, May, and Fitz set out to find Victoria Hand and take her down. While on this mission, Coulson discovers that Hand is not the clairvoyant after all and it has been his good friend Agent John Garrett. Garrett reveals that he is not only the clairvoyant but also a Hydra member that helped take over SHIELD.

Coulson, May, and Fitz get in a fight with Garrett and some Hydra henchmen, with Fitz and Coulson taking down Garrett. Once Ward finds out, he requests that instead of staying with the team, to travel with Hand and personally lock away his former S.O. Hand and Coulson do not see a problem with that and let Ward go on his way. Coulson tasks his team of "allies" to repair the plane so they can survive. But while, Coulson is repairing a plane, Ward causes mayhem on another. He turns and kills SHIELD officers and Victoria Hand, showing his true allegiance not only to Garrett but also to Hydra.

Marvel delivered a strong episode for the second week in a row and the writers have 5 episodes left to prove they deserve a second season. What do you expect to see in the final episodes of this season? Is Ward really a Hydra member?

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Looking Ahead Following Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Over this weekend, Marvel released Captain America: The Winter Soldier worldwide. Early reviews said that this was the best Marvel movie to date and I do not disagree. If you haven't seen the movie you need to and should also stop reading this post. Captain America: The Winter Soldier drastically changed Marvel's Cinematic Universe and this article is here to discuss how it did and how Marvel is going to move forward.

***** SPOILERS for Captain America: The Winter Soldier to follow *****

Well now that you are still reading, I am assuming you have seen Captain America: The Winter Soldier. In this movie, Captain America, Falcon, and Black Widow have to take down SHIELD after Nick Fury reveals that it has become corrupt. Ever since SHIELD was founded, Hydra started implanting people of their own inside SHIELD so that one day they could take it over and change the world. Once Hydra member Alexander Pierce became the Secretary of SHIELD, he was tasked to get the world under Hydra's control. Pierce and Fury developed a project called Project Insight where they made new helicarriers with advanced weapon systems. Pierce and Hydra planned to use these new helicarriers to eliminate present and future threats to them from the earth. After a long and epic fight, SHIELD is taken down and now does not exist. So where does this leave Marvel's Cinematic Universe?

The first indication of this will be seen in the final six episodes of this season of Agents of SHIELD. With SHIELD now gone, Coulson and his team of misfits have no supervision and could hypothetically do whatever they wanted. The team's mission for the rest of the season should be to figure out who the clairvoyant is and what does the GH325 serum really do. Once the first season for Agents of SHIELD wraps up, we will have Guardians of the Galaxy next with Avengers: Age of Ultron to follow. SHIELD no longer existing has little to no effect on Guardians of the Galaxy, but should have a big impact on the Avengers sequel. 

Once the threats of Baron Von Strucker (shown in the post credit scene) and Ultron come to full force, who will rally the Avengers together? Will it be Nick Fury? Unlikely. Samuel L. Jackson said that we will see Fury in more of cameo role and not a prominent one, so him being the rallying force for the Avengers does not sound likely. Well how about Coulson? If Coulson and his team are on their own, it could be up to Coulson to bring the Avengers together after they all realize and understand how he is still alive. Even so, I am not sure the resurgence of Coulson could be enough to rally the Avengers together. I think it will come down to Captain America himself. He is now in charge of protecting the Earth and seems logical that he would be the one to bring the Avengers together again to save their planet one more time. With Rogers running the show, the Avengers would only be slowed down by moral dilemmas between the team, most notably Steve Rogers and Tony Stark. 

How do you think the destruction of SHIELD will effect Marvel's Cinematic Universe? Will they be reformed under Steve Rogers, Tony Stark, and Maria Hill?

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Agents of SHIELD Season 1 EP 16 Review

 Agents of SHIELD is coming down the stretch run for season 1 and kicked it off with a bang in "End of the Beginning". This is a review for "End of the Beginning" so there WILL be spoilers for not only this episode, but all previous episodes. 

***** SPOILERS TO FOLLOW *****

"End of the Beginning" starts out by getting us accustomed to the new and improved Deathlok.

After he attacks John Garrett and Agent Triplett, Coulson calls a meeting between himself, Garrett, Victoria Hand, Agent Sitwell, and Agent Blake. Coulson wants to step up the pursuit of the clairvoyant. To do this they have Skye devise a plan after she was made an official SHIELD agent.

By hunting down the clairvoyant, using Deathlok as a tracker, the team gets in all sorts of trouble. They eventually find a man named Thomas Nash in the basement of an abandoned race track. Nash is unable to move or talk due to his physical condition but uses a computer to do his talking. He warns Coulson of a "greater force" coming for him and Skye to get what they want and even threatens to kill Skye to do so. This sets off Ward and causes him to kill Nash.

Just when we think we solved the clairvoyant problem, Marvel has to throw in a twist just as they always do. Coulson poses the question that Nash was just a decoy and that the real clairvoyant is a SHIELD agent. Agent May seems to be involved and almost takes out Fitz after he disconnects her secure phone line. As the episode is ending, the plane gets turned around by a command from Victoria Hand who orders all aboard the plane be killed upon landing, except Coulson. Is Hand the real clairvoyant? If not who do you think it could be?

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